Cucumber in soy sauce 胡瓜の醤油漬け

I would like to have fresh cucumbers (if available Japanese cucumber but American mini-cucumber is a great substitute). Usually American min-cucumbers come in a pack of 6. If not used within 2-3 days, they go bad (white specks, either bacteria or fungus, develop on the surface).  I make several kinds of cucumber salads and pickles in an attempt to use up the cucumbers.  Currently our favorite pickled cucumber is using leftover pickling liquid after making the daikon pickles. In addition, I also try to preserve fresh cucumbers by placing them in a Ziploc bag and pouring enough Vodka to coat all the surface plus a bit more and then I squeeze out as much air from the bag as I can. With this treatment, the fresh cucumber last about one week or a bit more. I am always looking for other recipes to use cucumbers. I saw this recipe in one of the Ko Kentetsu You Tube episodes. It is easy enough and looks interesting. This is marinated about 3 days. It is still crunchy. Soy sauce and vinegar make the foundation but the addition of ginger and a small slash of dark sesame oil really make it.

Ingredients:
3 American mini-cucumbers or 2 Japanese cucumbers. 
Fine julienne of ginger root

Marinade:
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice vinegar
Small splash of dark sesame oil

Directions:
Cut the cucumbers length wise in half
Remove the seeds using a small spoon
Cut the cucumber on a bias in bite sized pieces

Add the cucumber, ginger and the marinade to a sealable container. Close the container and refrigerate. 

You can enjoy this immediately or in few days.

We like this. It is very easy to make and slight sweetness combided with the sesame oil and ginger really make this a good side dish or “Hashi-yasume” 箸休め meaning “chopsticks rest” so that the chopsticks take a brief rest after heavy lifting of main dishes.

Pickeld Micro Cucumber and Daikon 小さなキュウリと大根のピクルス

The other day while we were shopping at the near-by Whole Foods, my wife found a new item which is called “Teeny Tiny Cucumber” (picture #3). They are much smaller than “American Mini-cucumbers” and about the size of cornichons. I decide to use them to make a Japanese style pickle along with a daikon pickle. I would have used Japanese citrus “Yuzu” but we do not have any access to fresh yuzu so instead, I used Myer lemons (#1). The cucumbers were not crunchy but the daikon was nicely crunchy. It was a bit too sour/acidic for my wife so next time, I will dilute the marinade with some water.

The marinade is a standard Japanese sweet vinegar (one part rice vinegar,1/2 part sugar, small amount of salt). This is essentially a variation of “Daikon Namasu” 大根なます.

Ingredients:
1 package (9oz) teeny tiny cucumbers (picture #3)*
1/3 medium daikon, peeled, cut into 3-4 mm thick rounds and then cut into tick match sticks
1 Meyer lemon, sliced (or yuzu if available).
1 tsp of salt to “sweat” the cucumber and daikon to remove some internal moisture. 

Marinade:
1 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup water (optional)*

Directions:
Mix the marinade ingredients in a sauce pan and heat on medium flame until sugar and salt melt and start the liquid starts simmering. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl add the cucues, daikon and salt, mix well and let it stand for 10-15 minutes until water comes out.
Drain the excess moisture that came out, add half of  the lemon slices to the bottom of a mason jar, add the cucues and daikon and top with slices of the lemon (picture #2). Pour in the marinade. Once cooled to room temperature, place the jar in the refrigerator. The pickles will be ready in 2-3 days.

* Picture #3 is the package of this tiny cucues. I am not sure if this is a special kind of cucumber or just a young and small cucumber. It is grown in Canada.

We like this pickles. The cucumbers are a bit soft and not crunchy but the daikon was nicely crunchy. Over all, this was nice refreshing dish. May be we should have eaten it raw with a dip as suggested in the package. Next time.

Pickled Cucumber キュウリの漬物

We really like the pickled daikon which I posted before. I am making it regularly. As I mentioned in the previous post, the marinade contains a good amount of sugar and when I placed the daikon in the marinade, the marinade was basically a slurry i.e. not liquid. It weighed a total of 170 grams (120g sugar 25 gram vinegar, 12 gram sake, 15 gram salt, and 10 gram sake). But after 1-2 days, the moisture extracted from the daikon made the slurry into a liquid. Previously I discarded the marinade after the pickled daikon was finished. But this time I decided to experiment and added several whole American mini-cucumbers into the leftover marinade to see what would happen. After two days, the cucumber looked wrinkled. Nonetheless the result was surprisingly good. The cucumber tasted fresh and had some crunch left but was not raw. Initially I thought it was too sweet but the next day, the sweetness dissipated and just complemented the fresh taste of the cucumber. 

I wanted to see how the marinade changed after I used it for both the diakon and the cucumber. I did this by weighing it. I weighed the marinade both before and after the daikon and cucumbers were done. Before I put in the diakon, the marinade weighed 170 grams. After the diakon had been in the marinade for 2-3 weeks I removed it and weighed the marinade. It was 343 grams; meaning that 173 grams of liquid were extracted from the daikon and replaced in the diakon by the salt and flavoring of the marinade. In essence the moisture extracted from the diakon doubled the total volume of the liquid.  I then added 4 American mini-cucumbers to the 343 grams of marinade and after 1week I removed the cucumber and weighed the marinade. It had increased to 398 grams. (An additional 55 grams of liquid from the cucumbers were added to the marinade). I am not sure how many times I can reuse the marinade like this but it is good to know that I can use it for at least one batch of cucumbers after marinating the diakon and the cucumbers come out nicely. 

Table of contents 2024

January 2024
January 1,    Happy New Year 2024 明けましておめでとう2024 
January 5,    Tomato and Egg Stir-fry with Wood Ear and Natto 納豆、トマト、木耳の卵炒め
January 22,   Goat Cheese Scallion Muffin ゴートチーズと青葱マフィン
January 25,   White "Pineberry" and Red "Koyo" Stawberries 白いイチゴと昂揚イチゴ
January 28,   Beef with Kon-nyaku and Vegetable "Kimpira" Stir Fry 牛肉と蒟蒻の金平

February 2024
February 3,     Chestnut Brown Butter, Sage Muffin 栗の粉とセイジマフィン
February 8,     Grated Lotus Root and Tofu Ball レンコン豆腐饅頭
February 11,    Sweet Onion Bread Pudding 玉ねぎのブレッドプデｨング
February 15,    Shad Roe from South Carolina 南カロライナからのシャドロウ
February 18,    Cranberry Camembert Cheese Bites クランベリーソース、カマンベールチーズ　バイツ
February 21,    Simmered Shad Roe with Vegetables シャドロウの煮付け
February 24,    Shad Roe Pasta  シャドロウパスタ
February 27,    Pickled Cucumber キュウリの漬物

March 2024
March 1,    “Maitake” Hen of the Woods Mushroom in Brown Butter and Sage 焦がしバターとセイジ風味舞茸
March 4,    Instant Pot BBQ Baby Back Ribs バーベキューベイビーバックリブ
March 7,    Salted Oatmeal Cookie 塩味オートミールクッキー
March 10,  Lobster Salad ロブスターサラダ
March13,    “Roman” Gnocchi ローマンニョキ
March 22,   Duck Tender Cutlet and Arancini 鴨ささ身のカツレツ
March 25,   Mary Walsh’s Currant Cake マリーウオルシュのカラントケーキ
March 28,   St. Patrick’s Day Dinner, Lamb Chops and Cabbage with bacon セントパトリックのディナー

April 2024
April 6,    Pumpkin “Kabocha” salad カボチャのサラダ
April 10,    Mini Fruit Galettes ミニフルーツガッレト 
April 21,    Spinach Soufflé (easy version) ほうれん草のスフレ 
April 30,    Frangipane Rolls フランジパンロール 

May 2024
May 13,    Pickled Micro Cucumber and Daikon 小さなキュウリと大根のピクルス 
May 15,    Steamed Carrot Buns with Ginger Custard 人参蒸しパン生姜カス... 
May 18,    Braised Eggplant with Oyster Sauce 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め
May 21,    Creamed Spinach with Cauliflower Puree カリフラワーピュレのク
May 24,    Anchovy Salad アンチョビサラダ
May 27,    Daikon Steak and Two Appetizers 大根ステーキ
May 30,    Focaccia Bread Baked in Breville Pizzaiolo Indoor Pizza Oven 

June 2024
June 2,    Steak and 2004 Joseph PhelpさんInsignia ステーキデｨナーと2004 インシグニア
June 5,    Gyoza made with New Round Gyoza Skin 日本風の餃子の皮で作った餃子 
June 8,    Filled Wool Bread 毛糸のパン 
June 11,    Shrimp Shumai 海老焼売 
June 14,    Pumpernickel Boule ドイツ黒パン 
June 17,    Ice Breaker “Summer” Sake 玉川アイスブレイカー酒 
June 20,    Carrot Panna Cotta 搾りたて人参ジュースのパナコタ
June 23,    Miso-marinated Firefly Squid ホタルイカの味噌焼き 
June 26,    Wood Ear Mushroom and Wakame Salad 木耳とわかめの和物 
June 29,    Nine “Otoshi” Appetizers お通し九種類

July 2024
July 2,    Egg roll 春巻き
July 5,    Red and Green Udon “Pasta” with Prosciutto 生ハムのせ赤と緑のうどんパスタ
July 8,    Pizza Made in Indoor Electric “Pizzaiolo” Pizza Oven 
July 11,    Garlic Chive Dumpling ニラ頭饅 or 韮菜万頭
July 14,    Mitsuba ミツバ 
July 17,    Dassai 45 and Dassai blue comparison 獺祭45とDassai Blue 50 飲み比べ 
July 28,    Cucumber in soy sauce 胡瓜の醤油漬け
July 31,    Tofu, Egg and Garlic Chives Stir Fry 豆腐ニラ玉、木耳入り

August 2024
August 9,    Home Coffee Roasting 緑コーヒー豆の自家焙煎 
August 12,    Icelandic Pumpernickel (Rye) Bread アイスランドのライ麦パン

September 2024
September 2,    Smelt Fry シシャモフライ
September 5,    Pesto Blini ペストビリニ 
September 8,    Yakitori de le Canard 鴨ささみで焼き鳥 
September 11,    Vegetables in Cold Broth 冷製のトマトの煮浸し 
September 14,    Pesto Blini Prosciutto Cheese Sandwich ペストビリニの生ハムチーズサンド
September 17,    Chicken Tender Fry with Salted Plum Sauce and Perilla ささみの梅大葉揚げ 
September 21,    Simmered Dried Daikon Threads 切り干し大根の煮物 
September 24,    Fresh Corn Blini コーンビリニ 
September 27,    Stir-fried Eggplant and Shiitake in Oyster Sauce 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め... 
September 30,    Mashed Potato Blini マシュポテトのビリニ

October 2024
October 3,    Five appetizers お通し５品
October  10,    Hen-of-the-Woods Grilled Cheese 舞茸のチーズ焼き
October 13,    Strawberry Blini いちごビリニ 
October 16,    Enoki mushroom frittata エノキ　オムレツ/フリッタータ 
October 19,    Kabocha salad カボチャサラダ 
October 22,    Matsutake (from Weee) Touban-yaki 松茸の陶盤焼き 
October 25,    Black Cod Marinated in Saikyo miso 銀鱈の西京(味噌)焼き
October 28,    Egg-wrapped Kabocha カボチャの黄金焼き 
October 31,    Almond Olive Oil Cake アーモンドオリーブオイルケーキ

November 2024
November 3,    Hiyaoroshi Sake Dewanoyuki “Sho-nai Bijin” 出羽ノ雪　冷やおろし庄内美人
November 6,    Hiyaoroshi Sake “Shichi Hon Yari” 七本槍　純米ひやおろし 
November 9,    Prosciutto-wrapped Haddock 生ハム巻きハドック (コダラ) 
November 12,    Marinated Chicken Tender Cutlet 鳥のささみのカツレツ
November 15,    Crispy Enoki Mushroom エノキのパリパリ焼き
November 18,    Bagel ベーグル 
November 21,    Chestnut Apple Soup クリとリンゴのスープ 
November 24,    Norwegian Mackerel Teriyaki 冷凍ノルウエイ鯖の照り焼き 
November 27,    “Imo-ni” Stew famous in Yamagata 芋煮庄内風 
November 30,    Matsutake and beef cooked in an Aluminum Foil Pouch 松茸と牛肉のフォイル焼き

December 2024
December 8,    Chestnut olive oil bread 栗とオリーブオイルケーキ
December 11,    Marinated Tofu and Egg Sir fry 味付け豆腐の卵炒め 
December 16,    Braised daikon with carrot, wood ear, and fried tofu 大根と人参の炒め物
December 19,    “Taco Carnitas”-ish タコ カルニタもどき
December 21,    Tofu in Warm Broth ミニ湯豆腐

Cucumber and Wood Ear in Mustard Sauce キュウリとキクラゲの辛子和え

We got fresh wood ear mushrooms “Kikurage” 木耳 from Weee. In an effort make the mushroom last longer I go through several steps. I wash the mushrooms, blanch them, then wash them again in cold water. I let them dry on a dish towel. I then place them in a Ziploc bag with some pieces of paper towel to absorb excess moisture. The texture does not change by blanching and wood ear does not have much flavor. Never-the-less, I am trying to use it up and look for new recipes. I found this recipe at e-recipe. I deviated from the original by adding roasted/barbecued pork instead of ham and also some changes in the dressing.

Ingredients:
One American mini-cucumber, ends trimmed, cut into half length-wise, then sliced on bias
Wood ear mushroom (fresh or hydrate dry), cut into julienne (amount arbitrary)
Slices of roasted pork (or ham) cut into julienne (amount arbitrary)

For dressing:
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
2 tsp sweet vinegar (I used homemade which I keep in a bottle; the ratio of vinegar to sugar is 2:1 with a dash of salt)
1 tsp ponzu-shouyu
Japanese mustard (prepared from the tube) (amount to taste or for your liking)

Directions:
Knead the cucumber slices with small amount of salt, let them stand for 5 minutes and squeeze out excess moisture
Dress all the ingredients with the dressing. You could add more mustard. Adjust the taste to your liking
Refrigerate before serving.

This is a good small dish as an “otoshi” おとうし drinking snack. The wood ear adds nice crunch, the pork adds great flavor and the cucumber is refreshing. Spicy Japanese mustard also makes this dish. Best with cold sake but even goes with red wine.

Quail egg fry and Scotch eggs うずらの卵の串揚げとスコッチエッグ

We started using quail eggs ウズラの卵 from fresh eggs that we boil rather than using canned ones since the quality is much better. We can get fresh quail eggs from three sources; Weee on-line Asian grocery delivery service, our local Japanese grocery store (not always) and Whole Foods. Fresh quail eggs have their own problems, however. 1. It is difficult to judge if any eggs are cracked unless it is leaking the white or otherwise quite obviously damaged, 2. while boiling some quail eggs develop the cracks and 3. It is not easy to peel the shell without taking off some of the white. So the yield is 70-80% on good days. In any case, we got a dozen eggs and ended up with 10 boiled quail eggs (that is 83%!). I made mini Scotch eggs with the quail eggs and ground chicken. I also made “fried boiled eggs” (i.e. boiled quail eggs that are breaded and then deep fried). As a starter for one evening, I served half a Scotch egg, fried boiled quail eggs, fried shrimp heads from our Tako Grill take out and marinated or “zuke” tuna and hamachi sashimi. As a vegetable, I served “asazuke” 浅漬け of cucumber, nappa, daikon and carrot. I initially served with green tea salt and wedge of lemon. My wife requested “Tonkastu-sauce” as well.

I skewered two fried quail eggs with a tooth picks (shown under the shrimp head) emulating “Kushi-age” 串揚げ, Japanese breaded fried items on skewer, which is a classic Izakaya item.

How to prepare boiled quail eggs:
Add quail eggs to a pan of cold water on medium flame, as the water gets warmer, gently start stirring the water which helps to center the egg yolks. Once the water starts boiling turn down the flame and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately cool in ice water

Quaril egg Scotch egg:
Ingredients: Made 5
8 oz ground chicken (or beef or pork)
5 boiled quail eggs
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
freshly grated nutmeg, black pepper and salt to taste
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs Panko bread crumbs

For breading
Flour or potato starch
1 egg beaten mixed with 2-3 tbs water
Panko bread crumbs
Peanut oil for deep frying

Directions:
Sauté the onion and mushrooms in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, let it cool to the room temperature
Add ground chicken, panko and the seasonings, mix well and knead by hand (if too loose add more panko and/or potato starch).
Coat each quail egg in potato starch
Divide the meat mixture into 5 parts and make an oval 1/3 inch thick on your palm.
Place the egg in the center and encase it with the meat mixture to make an oval sphere (or ellipsoid)
Bread the sphere by coating in the potato starch (or flour), the egg water and the panko bread crumbs
Deep fry at 180F for about 5 minutes or until the bubbles become small
Cut in half and serve

This was quite good. The fried quail egg had a nice crunchy outside and the inside yolk was velvety smooth. The overall flavor was very nice too. It would have been easy to eat many more. The little Scotch egg was just the right amount as an appetizer for us. (We find the Scotch eggs made with regular hens eggs are too big.

Fresh Wood Ear Mushroom and Chicken Salad キクラゲと鶏肉の酢味噌あえ

I am always on the look out for places where we can get good and specialized (especially Japanese) groceries. I have known about the on line service called “Weee” which does not have a brick-and-mortar location but does deliver Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Latino grocery items. I also recently found out they deliver to our area. So, I finally took the plunge and ordered mostly vegetables, (daikon, and fresh lotus root) but especially indulged in the extensive selection of mushrooms (oyster, shimeji, enjoki and  wood ear). I was surprised that the wood ear mushroom 木耳 or “kikurage” キクラゲ I received was fresh. Until now, I’ve only had dried ones. From the label, this was produced by Guan’s mushroom which seems to be a large nation-wide operation.

In any case, this is what fresh wood ear mushroom looks like.

In the past I usually used dried wood ear mushroom re-hydrated in Chinese-style stir-fry. I looked for new recipes on-line and, because of the other ingredients I had available, I ended up combining two recipes to make this woodear and chicken salad.

I served this as a appetizer one evening. It was good but fresh wood ear is not as crunchy as the dried ones.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup or more, Wood ear mushroom, washed, blanched, and cooled. Remove the hard attachment part if present and cut into strips. If using dried, rehydrate first.
1 American mini cucumber, both ends trimmed and the seeds scooped out. Cut into quarters length-wise and then obliquely
1/2 cooked chicken breast (we used breast meat from a whole chicken which was barbecued in a Weber grill, cut into similar sized pieces as the cucumber.

Karashi sumiso からし酢味噌 dressing (japanese hot mustard, miso, sugar and rice vinegar)

Directions:
Just dress all the ingredients and serve. Because of the acidity of the dressing, sake goes best.

Wood ear does not have much flavor but does have a nice crunch. Actually, the Japanese name “Ki-kurage” キクラゲ means “tree (ki) jelly fish (kurage)” because of the similar crunchy texture. The fresh one is nice but not as crunchy as re-hydrated dried ones. I may prefer the dried also because keep for a long time.

Salmon-Scallop Spinach pate 鮭と帆立のパテ

 My wife’s sister mentioned that recently she made a great carrot cake and apple pie. She said the recipes came from a cookbook called “Frog Commissary Cookbook” by Steven Poses which was published in 1985 (and presently out of print). While we were talking about the cookbook, I quickly searched for it and found a used one in good condition at Amazon and ordered it.

Digression alert: My wife’s sister originally lived in the Philadelphia area and was familiar with the Frog Commissary when it was in vogue back in the 1980’s. It was an exclusive catering service for the Franklin Institute which is the science museum in Philadelphia. The cookbook is based on Steven Poses former restaurant (called “Frog”) and his catering experience at the Franklin. Although we had never heard of it, back-in-the-day, the Frog Commissary Cookbook” was a “must have” in the Philadelphia area much like San Francisco a la Carte by the Junior League of San Francisco was about the same time while we were living in the San Francisco area. 

As my wife and I were browsing through the book we both thought this seafood pate recipe was worthwhile to try. The recipe as shown in the cookbook is of catering proportions and large enough to serve a multitude of people. As a result it required some scaling down. In my scaled down version, however, I was not aggressive enough in the seasoning; more seasoning would have been better. Although nothing was listed as a possible sauce in the original recipe we felt it called for one. After some experimentation I came up with two sauces that worked pretty well.  I served it with a side of tomato and cucumber dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  In any case, it is rather good looking and subtle flavored pate.

As I mentioned I thought the original recipe was sort-of a restaurant size and I reduced it by 1/4. This was not easy since the original amounts were not in metric. I first converted the non-metric weight and volume to metric and then divide those by 4. The seasoning should have been more than just 1/4 of the original recipe. (The seasoning amounts below reflect the suggested increase).

Ingredients: (makes one mini-loafpan)
Salmon-scallop mixture
85 g scallops
85 g salmon filet
1 egg white
1/8 tsp nutmeg (or to taste)
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp pepper (or to taste)
1/8 tsp cayenne (or to taste)
1/2 tbs (7ml) brandy
100 ml heavy cream

Spinach-scallop mixture
3 g butter
3.7ml minced shallots (half of medium shallot)
1/2 cup packed fresh spinach (30 g, cooked, moisture squeezed out, finely chopped)
1/8 tsp salt
1/16 tsp pepper
1/2 tbs minced dill
25 g scallop
15 ml heavy cream

Directions:
Salmon-scallop mixture
Cut up the salmon and scallops into a small size and place in a food processor (I used a mini-food processor) and process for 1 minute or until all chopped up
Add the seasonings, egg white and brandy and process 10 seconds
Place in a bowl and add the cream in several increments and mix until smooth.
Cover and refrigerate.

Spinach scallop mixture
Sauté the shallot in butter for 4-5 minutes (I seasoned this with salt and pepper), let it cool.
I cooked the spinach in a wok, lid on, at very low heat without any liquid (our usual way) for 7-8 minutes occasionally mixing top and bottom portions of the spinach until completely wilted and cooked. Cool, squeeze out the moisture and cut it up.
Place the shallot, spinach, and dill in a food processor and process for 10 seconds, add the chopped scallop and process additional 30 seconds or util smooth.
Transfer to a bowl and mix in the cream and mix until smooth

Assembly:
I first lightly oiled all surfaces of the loaf pan with olive oil. I lined the loaf pan with two portions of parchment paper in the shape of a cross with all sides covered (#1 picture below).
Add half of the salmon-scallop mixture, make shallow trough using the back of a wet spoon and add the spinach scallop mixture to the center in a log shape (I used a spatula and spoon to do this) (#2).
Add the remaining salmon-scallop mixture and smooth the surface.
Cover the surface with parchment paper (which I forgot but no ill effect) (#3) and then cover the loaf pan with aluminum foil (#4).
Bake in the toaster oven on convection mode at 350F using a bain marie (larger pan with hot water covering at least half of the depth of the loaf pan) for 35 minutes or internal temperature registers 135F.
Remove the aluminum foil and let it cool on the rack until reaching room temperature.
Unmold the pate by gently lifting the ends of the parchment paper lining (#5).
I placed folded paper towel on the bottom of a tight fitting sealable plastic container and refrigerated.
The cut surface is very attractive with green center (#6).

This was very elegant and very good. But I think we can improve on this. Although the color contrast is nice, we are not sure if we need the spinach in the center. Just all salmon-scallop pate could be nicer and easier to make. In terms of the sauce, we tried three sauces; aged Balsamic vinegar, wasabi soys sauce, and yuzu-kosho ponzu. All worked well but we liked the classic wasabi-soy sauce best. The amount we made is just right for most people. I think the usual wine pairing would be a dry white or sparkling wine. We had it with our usual red.

Cold cucumber soup and aspic addendum 冷製胡瓜スープと胡瓜ゼリー

 Because we got 4 large American cucumbers instead of the 4 mini cucumbers we ordered for our recent groceries delivery, we decided to use them to make cold cucumber soup and cucumber aspic. We served the aspic with dill sauce. Although both dishes were very good and we ate each one individually for several lunches, my wife came up with the idea of combining the two. She placed the aspic in a bowl, poured in some of the soup and topped it with the sauce.

The result was an example of “the whole being greater than the sum of its parts”. The soup combined with the dill topping acted like a sauce which perfectly complemented the aspic. Cucumber was the predominant flavor but subtle differences in the flavors of the various ingredients that went into the soup versus the aspic added a pleasing complexity. In the future, we think this would be the preferred way to serve these two dishes so we decided to write this addendum to make that point. This cucumber combination also worked very well especially with the chicken curry we had with it for lunch. 

Cold cucumber soup 冷製胡瓜のスープ

Getting home delivery of groceries is very convenient but one problems that the quality of the fresh produce may be quite variable since we cannot inspect the product before buying. Broken eggs are not uncommon as well the the delivery of wrong items. We have also disable the automatic option for substitutions if the item we requested is not available. This is because the substitutions may not be always appropriate. For example, the substitution of shallots for jalapeno. Talking of wrong item being delivered, we recently received 4 giant American cucumbers instead of a package of 4 mini-cucumbers. (We like these because they are the closest in taste and texture to a Japanese cucumber). Although we do not like regular American cucumbers rather than throwing them out, we tried to use them. This is one of such attempt. We made cold cucumber soup with mint and buttermilk. We had it as a lunch with our usual potato salad and coleslaw. I also served skinned Campari tomato with broccoli and pecan, apricot bread. This was certainly all home-made vegetarian salad and soup lunch which was quite good and filling

Since I had few Japanese cucumbers (from our Japanese grocery store), I garnished the soup with several slices and chiffonade of mint leaves from our herb garden.

For both coleslaw and potato salad, we used home made Greek yogurt (from heirloom yogurt my wife makes regularly) which make it very creamy and also healthier (hopefully).

Since I made miso salad dressing several days ago (recipe from Washington Post, subject of another post), I dressed Campari tomato and blanched broccoli.

Although we jointly prepared the cucumber soup, I peeled, chopped and blended but my wife was in charge and ask her to take over for the recipe.

The recipe came from Southern Living on line.

Ingredients:
21 oz. cucumbers (in our case this was two big American cucumbers)
2 cups whole buttermilk
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (we used home-made)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (from our herb garden)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, plus more for garnish (we did not have fresh, we used 1 tsp dried)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice plus 1 tsp. lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Peel, seed, and chop 2 of the cucumbers.
Process chopped cucumbers, buttermilk, yogurt, mint, tarragon, lemon zest and juice, and salt in a blender until very smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.
Chill 1 hour or overnight.
We served with slices of Japanese cucumber and chiffonade of fresh mint leaves.


This was a quite nice cold soup. I usually do not particularly fond of buttermilk but for this soup, the buttermilk really tasted great. The slices of Japanese cucumber added nice fresh cucumber taste. One thing that was kind-of odd was that the soup was effervescent. You can see the little bubbles in the pictures above and interestingly the bubbles didn’t go away after the soup had been in the fridge for some time. The bubbles added to texture giving the otherwise velvety smooth soup and somewhat grainy mouth feel. Nonetheless it was a very good cool refreshing soup.

Cucumber salad PA Dutch style PA ダッチ風胡瓜サラダ

Many years ago when we discovered the American mini-cucumber, we were delighted since it is the closest thing to a Japanese cucumber we can get here. Before this, the only options were the standard American cucumber or the English cucumber. We really didn't like the standard American cucumber. It's much larger than the Japanese cucumber. It has a tough skin. It has more and larger seeds. It has somewhat mushy, watery flesh, and for us doesn't have much taste. So, as far as we were concerned, the available alternative was the English cucumber which I used until we discovered the mini-cuke. While it has more flavor than the standard American cucumber, the English cucumber still has, to a lesser extent, some of the characteristics we didn't like about the standard cucumber. It was better than the standard cucumber but not as good, to us, as the mini-cuke. The thing we like most about the mini-cuke besides its smaller size, thin skin, small seeds is its intense fresh cucumber taste.  Even now it is extremely difficult to get a Japanese style cucumber. Occasionally, if we are lucky, it is available at the Japanese grocery store. So for the most part I am using American mini-cukes to make "asazuke" 浅漬け and "sunomono" 酢の物 with good results. One day we realized we had an excess of cucumbers in the fridge so, out of the blue, my wife blurted, "Its summer. We have a lot of cucumbers.  Let's make Pennsylvania Dutch style cucumber salad like I used to eat summers growing up in rural Pennsylvania." So I was set to slicing Vidalia onion and American mini-cukes. After consulting her "historic"  PA Dutch cookbooks my wife made the dressing. This was quite good. 

Ingredients:
5 mini-cukes
1 medium sized Vidalia onion
3 Tbs. dill weed

For the dressing: (shown in picture below)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
2 Tbs. sushi vinegar (Yes. I know the Pa. Dutch did not have sushi vinegar…but we did.)
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Thinly slice the cucumber and onions. For the onion cover with several pinches of salt, knead it, let stand for several minutes to draw out moisture. Squeeze out additional moisture. Rinse under water to wash off the salt and squeeze it again. For the cucumber; cover with several pinches of salt, using less than for the onion. Repeat the steps used for the onion, but because I used less salt I did not need to rinse it. Add all the ingredients together for the dressing. Add the dressing to the onion, cucumber mixture. Add the dill and mix. (See picture below).

This was a very nostalgic taste of summer for my wife. You can't go wrong with a cream based dressing on fresh veggies. The overall taste of this salad is very refreshing and perfect for a hot humid summer day. The day we made this salad my wife had also made a chicken curry. They were both done at about the same time so we decided to taste the products of our (her) labor. We had a small bowl of each and were very surprised to find that the cucumber salad went perfectly with the curry. Then it dawned on us; this was the Pa. Dutch equivalent of Indian cucumber yogurt salad i.e. raita a customary side dish for curry. No wonder they went so well together. 

Grilled mackerel salad with “Yuzu” mayonnaise 柚子マヨあえ焼き鯖のサラダ

 This is a small salad made of leftover salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き. I just came up with this and did not have any recipe.

One interesting thing about this salad is the mayonnaise I used. This is Japanese “yuzu” mayonnaise which I got from one of the gourmet markets through “Instacart”. I added thinly sliced Videlia onion, sliced mini cucumber (both are salted. I let them stand for 5 minutes and then squeezed out the excess moisture). I also added skinned Campari tomato thinly sliced. I dressed the vegetables with the “Yuzu” mayonnaise.  I warmed up the mackerel in the toaster oven. I broke it into bite-size chunks and topped it with a bit more mayo.

I also served 4 additional small dishes. From left to right are blanched green asparagus with sesame dressing, グリーンアスパラガスの胡麻和え simmered Kabocha pumpkin かぼちゃの煮物,  salt broth soaked sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし and miso-simmered mackerel 鯖の味噌煮.

The salad was really good mainly because of this Japanese “yuzu” mayonnaise. I’ve used up almost half of this mayo already. I took pictures showing the container upside-down. I store it this way so that the contents would come out more easily from the opening.

This is a Japanese style mayonnaise similar in flavors and texture to Kewpie mayonnaise but it contains Japanese “yuzu” citrus juice. This gives a uniquely refreshing flavor. Although fresh Yuzu fruit is difficult to come by, frozen zest and bottled yuzu juice are readily available. I added a bit more yuzu juice to accentuate the flavor.

At first, we are skeptical about this mayonnaise but now we are sold. I even used in our sandwiches with great result.

I think using this with fish like I did here is a great combination. I am thinking of making tartar sauce with this. It should go well with breaded fried fish or Japanese “furai” dish 魚のフライ.

Salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き

 Come to think of it, I never cooked mackerel this basic way. When I got two whole Spanish mackerels from HMart via Instacart, there was too much to make it all into the miso-simmered dish 鯖の味噌煮 I usually make. So, I took two filets I prepared from the smaller of the two fish and made this salted and grilled mackerel. I filleted the fish and removed the small pin bones. Then I cut one filet into two and salted both sides. I let it stand for 10 minutes and blotted the surfaces using a paper towel. I made shallow cuts on the skin and re-salted it. Since I do not have a Japanese style fish grill and I did not want to cook fish in the toaster oven, I sautéed the fillets in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil.

This is a basic simple way of cooking mackerel but it was good. On the side, I added sliced mini-cucumber (salted and moisture squeezed out) dressed in sushi vinegar. Since we had just harvested and pickled myoga, I added it too. This could have gone very well with rice. We had it as a drinking snack with cold sake.

Super-soft Milk Bread 日本風食パン

Many years ago, when we visited Tokyo 東京, we stayed at hotels in the Asakusa area 浅草. (More recently, we've been staying at hotels in the Ginza/Tokyo station area). One of the fond memories we have of our stay at the Asakusa hotels was going to a coffee house or "Kissa-ten" 喫茶店 for breakfast and coffee. At that time, they usually offered, at a very reasonable price, choices of "morning sets" モーニングセットdesignated as  "A", "B" or "C". They consisted of some kind of egg (hard boiled or egg salad) and slightly different sides such as a mini green salad or cucumber. The foundation of the meal, and, as far as we are concerned, the best part, was a very thick slice of soft bread lightly toasted and served with butter or sometimes jam or jelly. The second cup of coffee was usually available at a steep discount which was another reason we liked breakfast at the Kissa-ten. Recently my wife came across a recipe for "Super-soft Milk Bread". In addition to being reminiscent of our favorite Kissa-ten bread, the accompanying write-up referred to it as a variation of "Hokkaido milk bread". Since I am originally from Hokkaido 北海道, that "sealed the deal". I had to make this. This is a very different recipe from our usual white bread loaf. It came out super soft, light and fluffy. It really reminded us of "Kissa-ten" toast. I sliced a very thick piece (but not as thick as some we had at kissa-ten) toasted it and slathered on the butter. Voila!

Some Japanese recipes for this type of bread include "Yu-dane" 湯種 or "Yu-kone or Yu-gone" 湯捏ね in which  a portion of flour is mixed and kneaded with hot water. Instead, this recipe pre-cooked the flour and milk into a soft paste called "tangzhong" which is the Chinese pronunciation of "Yu-dane"  湯種.  I read that this was popularized by a Chinese cookbook author Yvonne Chen as "tangzhong" which is the term that commonly appears in English-written recipes for this type of bread. This recipe came from the King Arthur website.

Ingredients
Tangzhong
3 tablespoons (43g) water
3 tablespoons (43g) whole milk
2 tablespoons (14g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour


Dough
2 1/2 cups (298g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
2 tablespoons (14g) Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup (50g) sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast (This looked like too much for one loaf of bread, next time I may reduced it in half)
1/2 cup (113g) whole milk
1 large egg
4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, melted

I weighed all ingredients except for the yeast and egg.

Directions

To make the tangzhong: Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain.

Place the saucepan over low heat and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it becomes thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan, about 3 to 5 minutes (#1 below).

Transfer the tangzhong to a small mixing bowl or measuring cup and let it cool to lukewarm.
To make the dough
Combine the tangzhong with the remaining dough ingredients, then mix and knead — by mixer or bread machine — until a smooth, elastic dough forms; this could take almost 15 minutes in a stand mixer (I used a standing mixer with a dough hook and kneaded it for 7-10 minutes).

Shape the dough into a ball, and let it rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.

Gently deflate the dough and divide it into four equal pieces; if you have a scale each piece will weigh between 170g and 175g (I divided the dough in half-- I should have weighed the halves; the loaf came out uneven).

Flatten each piece of dough into a 5" x 8" rectangle, then fold the short ends in towards one another like a letter. Flatten the folded pieces into rectangles again (this time about 3" x 6") and, starting with a short end, roll them each into a 4" log. (After flattening, folding, I rolled it into two logs).

Place the logs in a row of four (in my case, two) — seam side down and side by side — in a lightly greased 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Cover the loaf and allow it to rest/rise for 40 to 50 minutes, until puffy (#2 below).

Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

To bake the bread: Brush the loaf with milk and bake it for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's golden brown on top and a digital thermometer inserted into the center reads at least 190°F (#3 below).
Remove the loaf from the oven and cool it in the pan until you can transfer it safely to a rack to cool completely (#4).

The dough rose rather quickly (this is the reason I think I will reduce the yeast next time). After the bread completely cooled, I sliced it (#4).We have been making white bread loafs for some time using an old recipe which came with our stand mixer. Our white bread loaf is good but this one is different and may be better. It is extremely light and very close to the Japanese loaf bread we had at the Kissa-ten. We were "transported" back to Tokyo with the first bite. It had a mildly sweet flavor and the crust was nice and crunchy. We will definitely make this again for sure.

Addendum:

I doubled the amount and made two loaves. I also, decreased the yeast by half (proportionally). I also weighed the 4 portions (2 for one loaf) and they came out in equal sizes (see pictures below). This is just a note to myself so that I do not have to calculate  the ingredients' weight again.

Ingredients:

Tangzhong
86 g water
86 g whole milk
28 g King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

Dough
596 g King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
28 g  nonfat dry milk 
100 g sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
226 g whole milk
2 large egg
114 g (one stick) unsalted butter, melted

Despite halving the yeast, the dough rose and the bread came out soft and fluffy. It may have taken a little bit more time to rise but the flavor of the bread, we thought, was better.

"Wu-zaku" eel and cucumber 鰻ざく

Because of Covid-19, and the uncertainty of some food supplies particularly due to the closure of multiple meat processing plants, we were gradually increasing our frozen cache of meat and fish as well as stews and curries made using the stockpiled proteins. One day, I noticed a strange smell when I opened the refrigerator or freezer.  I asked our resident "sniffer" who has an uncanny sense of smell and also happens to be my wife to sniff out what was going bad. She said the smell is not coming from food but was an electric-related smell. Not good news! Red alert; the refrigerator/freezer could well be on its way out. We immediately went on line to order a back up small stand alone freezer to save all the food we had just stock-piled. Apparently, with everyone else stocking up on food in case of a shortage small stand alone freezers were in high demand and absolutely none were to be had.  Some sites specified how to order; pick out the model you want, pay for it in full and your name would be then be put on a waiting list. No expected delivery time indicated. We finally ended up placing an order for a small stand up freezer which would not arrive for at least 6 weeks.  (We always seem to be on the trailing edge of these things). (And wouldn't you know that if the fridge is going to fail it would be at a time like this-- just after you have fully stocked it.)

The refrigerator limped along for a day or two with the smell seeming to disappear only to return. One morning, I came into the kitchen and there was a puddle of water on the floor coming from the freezer side of the fridge.  I realized it had happened; the fridge was kaput.  I checked the frozen food. Many of the meats and fish luckily, were still frozen. Since the back-up freezer had not yet arrived, I quickly recommissioned a small stand-up freezer in which my wife keeps speciality flours for baking, from a baking freezer to a meat freezer. I removed all the flour and replaced it with the meat and fish. It all fit.

Unfortunately many of the Japanese items were on the top shelf of the freezer and had already almost completely thawed by the time I got to them. Among the Japanese fish packages was "eel" kabayaki うなぎの蒲焼. So, that evening we had unexpected "Eel" feast. I started with "Wu-zaku" 鰻ざく. This is warm grilled eel with eel sauce topped with cool slices of cucumber in vinegary dressing. I suppose the contrast of warm, oily, soft, sweet and salty eel with cold crunchy cucumber with vinegar dressing is the main attraction of this dish.

I first made cucumber topping.

Ingredients (2 small servings)
One American mini-cucumber, sliced, salted, left for a short while then squeezed to remove the excess moisture
1/2 inch ginger root, skin removed and finely julienned

For dressing
2 tbs Japanese dashi broth
1tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp light colored soy sauce

Chill the cucumber topping in the fridge until just before serving.

Frozen package of eel kabayaki, thawed (whether accidentally like this time or intentionally). I used half for this dish, cut into pieces shown below).

Assembly:
I heated up the eel pieces in a toaster oven (I used toasting function at the highest).

Put the eel pieces on a small plate.

Top it with the cucumber.

Of course, cold sake was called for. Although we still like "Mu" which has been our house sake for a long time, we switched to "Tengumai" as seen below. This daiginjou has a bit more complexity than "Mu" and, at Tippsy sake, Tengumai is less expensive than "Mu".

This was followed by a few more items and we had eel donburi or "unadon" うな丼 as a "shime" ending dish with golden thread eggs 金糸卵. My wife is often leary of the multiple small bones in eel. From experience she found that big pieces of eel such as the kind used in donburi often have numerous hidden small bones but usually the pieces used in sushi do not. She even went so far as to call eel donburi "toothbrush buri". And after several bad experiences in Japan actually stopped ordering eel dunburi.  This time she was quite happy to discover that although the piece was quite large, it was sushi quality and didn't have any small bones. It was one of the best eel dunburies ever.

Hanami 2020 #3 with Uni and tuna from Catalina ３日目の花見、カタリナの刺身

After we had our first hanami celebration meal of Tako Grill take out, we received some shashimi items from Catalina Offshore products. It is rare now-a-days that they have gold uni from California but they had it and I ordered it with Pacific bluefin tuna loin, salmon and "ankimo" Monkfish liver. The fish arrived Saturday and we had our second hanami of tuna sashimi and a half of uni that evening. The other items contributed to the third continuation of hanami. I prepared half of the uni as "shio-uni" 塩うに or salted uni. The uni arrived in this plastic container which works much better than traditional wood tray.

The uni was nicely formed (not fragmented or dissolved). It was a nice orange color. Its been a while since we had uni from Catalina. We have been getting some uni from Maruhide but this one was pretty good.

I enjoyed half as sashimi and prepared the other half as "Shio uni" or salted uni. I read that this was a very usual preparation in Aomori prefecture 青森県 which is the norther most part of the main land Japan, "Honshu"本州. Most of the recipes (all in Japanese) call for 100 grams of uni and 12 grams of salt. Place the uni slightly apart in a flat sealable container lined with a paper towel, and sprinkle with the salt (see below). I put on the lid and placed it in the refrigerator for three hours. After three hours, moisture came out and was absorbed by the paper towel. Since we were going to consume the uni the next day, I just move the uni to a smaller sealable container. If you use a sterilized container (a glass jar sterilized  in boiling water, cooled and dried), the uni should last at least 1 week in the refrigerator).

In any case, I forgot to take a picture when we had this the next day. To serve it I made a bottom layer of thinly sliced mini cucumber on a plate and put the salted uni on the top. We folded the cucumber and uni into single serving seasoned nori sheets 味付け海苔 and enjoyed the combination of flavors. The uni became bit more creamy with more intense flavor. Definitely I will use this technique to preserve and enhance the flavor of uni in the future.

In any case, we had the remaining tuna two ways; one is tuna cubes with avocado 鮪とアボカドの角切り(seasoned with finely chopped garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce).

Another was just straightforward tuna sashimi with blanched broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリーの胡麻和え, salt broth snap peas スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, Japanese omelet 出汁巻 and "asazuke" 浅漬け of cucumber and daikon.

In any case, we had a very good 3rd hanami.

Bonito tataki teriyaki カツオたたきの照焼

This is just a left-over control dish and not really a recipe. I found I had quite a large package of frozen bonito tataki カツオのたたき in the freezer and decided it wasn't getting any better with age. So, I defrosted it. That evening, we finished 2/3 as a carpaccio-style rendition of bonito tataki . Since the piece was very large rather than forcing ourselves to finish it, I marinated the remainder in soy sauce, mirin and sake with grated ginger to use the next night. The next evening, I blotted the fish with a paper towel to remove the excess marinade, then I cooked it in a frying pan with a bit of oil. I cooked it for one minutes each side and removed it from the pan and set it aside. I added the marinade to the pan and reduced it. When it thickened I put the fish back in and coated it with the sauce. I served it with blanched green beans with sesame dressing, skinned Campari tomato and cucumber (American mini cuke) and wakame seaweed dressed in sumiso 酢味噌 dressing

Teriyaki 照り焼き, "teri" means "glistering" or "shiny" and "yaki" means "grilled". After the marinade is reduced, the coated surface of the fish becomes shiny because of the sugar content of the sauce .

For some reason, I automatically sprinkled on "sansho" powder 山椒.  For leftover control, this was quite a good small dish to start the evening.

Mackerel ceviche しめ鯖のサビーチェ

In our household, once an item goes into the freezer, it tends to "fall off the radar screen" and gets lost. When my wife digs deep into the freezer in search of something, she always finds some very old item. On one such occasion, she pointed out a package of pickled mackerel or "shime-saba" しめ鯖. I knew it was old but I had no idea how old. I defrosted it one weekend and it was not edible. So, on a subsequent weekend, I bought some "fresh" frozen pickled mackerel. I did not take any chances this time and, the next day, I made this dish. I got this idea from a recipe on line.

This is a good dish. Perfect with cold sake.

The addition of vegetables added more volume.

Ingredients:
One package frozen "shime saba" pickled mackerel (#2), Thin skin peeled off and cut into a
bite sized pieces (#3).
1/2 sweet  onion (I used Vidalia), cut into thin slices (#1)
2 skinned Campari tomatoes, cut into thin wedges (#1)
1 Jalapeño pepper, seeded, veined and cut into fine dice (#1)
lime juice (from 1 lime) or lemon juice
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
1-2 tsp olive oil (I used our favorite Spanish olive oil)
1/2 cucumber (I used American mini cucumber), thinly sliced for garnish

Directions:
Just mix it all up (#4) and dress with the lime juice, and olive oil. Season it with salt and black pepper (#4). Let it stand in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
I garnished with the cucumber

This is better than just eating the mackerel like sashimi with soy sauce, wasabi or ginger. Since the shime-saba had just been bought, it was nice and not overly pickled. This is indeed a very good way to serve shime-saba. This dish is not as challenging to people who are not into sashimi and mackerel in particular.

Yamakake variation 山かけバリエーション

This is a variation of "Yamakake" 山かけ. Since the frozen block of yellowfin tuna キハダマグロの冷凍冊 I had in the freezer was getting old, I decided to use it. I divided the block into three portions and tried to make three different dishes. Since frozen yellowfin tuna is not the best quality tuna, I made thick slices and marinated all of them in concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (from the bottle) or "mentsuyu" 麺つゆ. I used to make the marinade myself but I am getting lazy. Grated nagaimo 長芋 (or yamaimo if you can get it) with tuna sashimi "Yamakake" is a "golden" combination.  This variation is based on a recipe I saw on line. I made a sauce (dissolving wasabi in soy sauce) separately and placed it in a small squeeze bottle so that I could add any amount I liked after the dish was assembled.

For greenery, the recipe called for "Daikon" sprouts which I did not have so I just used thinly sliced American mini-cucumber.

Instead of grating nagaimo, I made small chunks by crushing it in a Ziploc bag using a meat pounder. This is called "Tataku". Most frequently, this is done to cucumber called "tataki kyuri" 叩き胡瓜 so that the seasoning will cling better to the irregular surface. For nagaimo, this process gives a nice crunchy texture (chunks) with a grated texture along the edges of the chunks.  We like this combination of the textures very much.

One more additional step was called for in preparing the tuna. After a few hours of marinading, I sandwiched it between hydrated kelp which is called "Kobujime" 昆布締め. This is usually done for white meat fish but as per the recipe I added this step.  I did this for 1 hour. Before cutting the tuna in into smaller cubes.

We really liked this version of yamakake. We are not sure "kobujime" process really added much though. In any case, this was definitely wroth trying again (hopefully with better quality tuna sashimi).

Italian-style octopus salad and more small dishes イタリアンたこサラダ

This is a variation on the theme of Italian-style squid salad イタリアンイカサラダ. To use up boiled octopus legs, I made this salad one evening. The dressing is made with rice vinegar, Dijon mustard and olive oil seasoned with salt and black pepper.

For vegetables, thinly sliced Vidalia onion, American mini-cucumber, finely chopped celery, skinned Campari tomatoes, Kalamata olive on the bed of our home grown arugula. Like squid salad, this is a good combination and a rather healthy starter.

We then proceeded with our usual suspects of small appetizer dishes.

This is cold tofu or "Hiyayakko" 冷や奴. I changed the topping with bonito flakes, finely chopped scallion, "ikura" salmon roe and blanched edible chrysanthemum all dressed with concentrated noodle sauce.'

This is the last of Chinese-style squid salad 中華風イカサラダ (store-bought).

This is Spanish Mackerel simmered in miso sauce サバの味噌煮 I made a few days ago with a side of blanched broccoli. I just warmed them up by microwaving for 15 seconds. Once I make this, we can usually stretch it out for about 10 days storing it in the refrigerator. This is always a good-to-have item.

We still had left over gyoza 餃子 I made and store-bought fish cake. Sugar snaps are blanched, cooled in ice water and soaked in Japanese dashi broth seasoned with salt スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

We really like to have many small dishes with many different taste and textures.